Terror

   The Terror is the name given to a period of the revolution of 1789. After August 10, 1792, the fear of an aristocratic conspiracy and the defeats of the French army brought about, with the impetus of the insurrectional commune of paris, the creation of an extraordinary criminal tribunal (August 17, 1792) to judge suspects and the September massacres (the first Terror). After the elimination of the girondins (June 2, 1793), the external and internal threats (federalist insurrection, war in the vendee, chouannerie) and financial and economic difficulties favored the development of the popular revolutionary movement of the sansculottes and the enragés, who gained, after the riots of September 4 and 5, 1793, the legislation of the Terror (Law of Suspects, September 17, 1793). it targeted the nobles and the refractory priests, the émigrés and their families, officials suspected of treason, speculators, and monopolists. The main organs of the Terror were the Committee of Public Safety the Committee of General Security, the Revolutionary Tribunal, the Surveillance Committees, and the representatives of missions sent to the nation's departments. it is estimated that 17,000 persons were executed after being tried, and 25,000 on a simple affidavit of identity. The first wave struck down the leaders of the Girondins and Queen marie Antoinette (October 1793). After the end of the war in the vendée and external military successes (Hondschoote, Watignies) the continuation of the Terror was not justified. The Terror, transformed into a method of government (execution of the Hébertists and the Indulgents), was again strengthened by the law of 22 Prairial, Year II (June 10, 1794) that suppressed preliminary interrogation. A manifestation of an extreme political will founded on the idea of absolute and indivisible popular sovereignty, the Terror came to an end with the fall of maximilien Robespierre (July 27, 1794). Under the Thermidorian Convention, the Terror was abolished and the form terrorists were deported or executed.